If you want to know what Detroit Red Wings fans think about their team, just head to Little Caesars Arena on game day.
The first three games of the 2026-27 season were soundtracked by boos, aimed at disgruntled star Dylan Larkin and an underperforming Red Wings roster, now 11 seasons out from the franchise's last playoff appearance. But the strongest boos were aimed at owner Chris Ilitch, with fans imploring the Ilitch Sports + Entertainment president to "sell the team" moments after the puck dropped on the regular season.
Those chants reappeared at the start of the team's second game against the Winnipeg Jets, with fans turning their attention to Larkin in his return during the team's third game Tuesday against the Ottawa Senators. But unless
the Red Wings greatly overcome their early season issues, Ilitch and his ownership group might be hearing "sell the team" chants all season.
[ Wings fans venting a decade's worth of frustration, at Larkin and so much more ]
If there's any comfort for Ilitch (besides being worth nearly $4 billion and owning two major professional sports teams), he is not the first son of a longtime Red Wings owner to incur the wrath of his home fans.
Here's a short history of Detroit sports fans finding creative ways to tell ownership to stick it.
Bruce Norris sells the Red Wings, 1982
The Red Wings were re-named and revitalized when James E. Norris purchased the team in 1932, with the team winning five Stanley Cups in his 20 years at the helm before his death in 1952. Norris' son Bruce took over the team after a power struggle with his sister Marguerite in 1955, which began one of the worst periods of Red Wings history.
Nearly three decades of dysfunction came to a boiling point in 1982, when during a celebration for the 50th anniversary of the elder Norris' initial purchase, fans booed Bruce Norris at what was supposed to be a celebratory event. Norris, who had been looking for a buyer for the team since 1979, soon after sold to Mike Ilitch, who owned the team until his death in 2017.
Tigers fans respond to Ernie Harwell firing, 1992
The Tom Monaghan era of Detroit Tigers baseball didn't come with much winning after the 1984 World Series, and its most infamous moment was a personnel decision.
Monaghan, in his ninth season owning the Tigers in 1991, fired longtime radio announcer Ernie Harwell without much explanation. Upon learning about Harwell's firing after the 1991 season, fans revolted, mostly aiming their ire at Tigers executive (and legendary former Michigan football coach) Bo Schembechler, printing bumper stickers reading "Bo Don't Know Ernie" and threatening a boycott of WJR – at the time the Tigers' radio partner.
Though it's debatable whether the public pressure led to Monaghan's sale, the Domino's owner sold the team to, you guessed it, business rival Mike Ilitch (of Little Caesars Pizza fame) before the 1992 season. Ilitch then fired Schembechler and re-hired Harwell, who stayed in the Tigers booth until his retirement in 2002.
Lions fans break out the paper bags, 2008
Fans of the New Orleans Saints are considered the originators of the paper bag demonstration, first covering their heads in 1980 for the infamous "Aints." But Lions fans had good reason to co-opt the practice in 2008, when their team became the first in NFL history to complete an 0-16 regular season.
Lions fans have broken out the paper bags and boos toward the Ford family several times since then (the Calvin Johnson ring ceremony, anyone?), with "Same Old Lions" used as a rallying cry to explain the team's long list of excruciating, inexplicable disappointments – the only continuous NFL club to play every season in the Super Bowl era and not yet reach the big game.
Pistons fans tell Tom Gores to sell the team, 2023
Gores bought the Pistons in 2011. His reign without even a single playoff win grew tiresome, but the Pistons were historically putrid in the 2023-24 season by recording an unfathomable NBA-record 28 straight losses, going two months without a victory from 2-1 to 2-29. Fans, of course, didn't wait that long to make their displeasure known, chanting "sell the team" during a December loss against backups for the Utah Jazz.
Gores did not sell the team, however, and the Pistons – after a regime change – quickly turned it around by tripling their win total in 2024-25 for a playoff appearance and Gores' first playoff wins (snapping an NBA record of 15 consecutive playoff losses dating to 2008) and the No. 1 seed in 2025-26 and first playoff series victory in 18 years.
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You can reach Christian at cromo@freepress.com.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: 'Sell the team!' 4 times Detroit sports owners saw fans rebel
